Jolteon386: A Pokemon's Story
by Jolteon386
Summary: The story of an Eevee mutated by Team Rocket and the friends he finds.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one: The Experiment  
Part one: The day before  
This is the tale of the Enhanced Eevee Project, subject number 386.  
It starts with a warehouse. This warehouse is no ordinary building, though. It is a Team Rocket Lab established specifically for the EE Project, and holds 500 different specimens within its walls.

**Journal:**

Journal day one: an eevee's ignorance  
I am an eevee. My intelligence has raised rapidly during this experiment, and I am learning more every day. The ones who hold me are planning some kind of experiment for me tomorrow, not yet realizing how intelligent I am. I do not know what it is, but I hope it goes well. I am glad that one of the men dropped his notebook into my cage, giving me something to record my thoughts on.

As I wrote in my new journal, I knew that tomorrow would be a day to remember. I slept well that night not knowing that once I woke up my world would change forever.

I woke to find myself being taken through a hall I had never seen before by an unfamiliar man. we reached a room where he pushed me onto a table and strapped me down, then giving me some sort of drugged shot that caused me to fall into a deep sleep. I remember the dream I had quite vividly. I dreamed of a thunderstorm. I found the ground below my feet hard and unyielding, and I could barely move any part of my body, let alone move from where I was standing. Soon I heard thunder. As lightning bolts slowly struck closer and closer to me, I noticed that scattered everywhere were silhouettes of figures. Human figures, all but one. A Persian. Finally, a bolt struck me. but it was not just one. It was many, coming from every silhouette came a bolt, each one aimed at me. as they struck, the last thing I saw was a large, red R.

End Of Chapter


	2. Chapter 2

-Chapter 2: The Escape  
Part 1: Awakening  
I was awake. The drugs they used made me instantly wake up from the sleep they put me in, but also allowed me a very accurate memory of what had happened. As I looked around, I noticed that my cage was bigger. Then I realized that I, too had grown in the time I was asleep. I looked around and nothing seemed different, my journal was even there. I looked down in disappointed, hoping something else had changed. Then I jumped up, nearly hitting my head on the top of the cage. My feet were green! I quickly hopped over to my water bowl to see my reflection, and saw that I was as green as a spring leaf. Not only that, but my fur was spikier than a hedgehog. I knew that I looked like a Jolteon, but I had the coloring closer to a Leafeon's. Then I realized it. I was shiny! I realized that I had not even known that shiny pokemon existed before the experiment, then listened carefully. There were no scientists in the room, but I could hear voices. Three voices came from seemingly nowhere, saying very odd things.

?1: Let's see, which one best suits me, this cute Vaporeon, or this adorable Eevee?  
?2: I think this Flareon suits me perfectly!  
?3: (Infatuated) That Leafeon makes a Meowth's heart swoon.  
?1&2: Shut up Meowth!  
?2: Anyway, we have to get some cash first before we can have any of them.  
?1: Do you have to always ruin things for me?

These comments seemed strange to me, although I would find out what they were about within a very short time. Soon, a scientist took me away to a different room and left, closing the door behind him. The room was plain white, so I sat there and waited for what was to come.

Part 2: A short battle, and a plan.  
After sitting in the blank room for a while, hatches opened up on the walls and out rolled a thick layer of dirt and rocks. Soon after a door on the other side of the arena opened and a scientist released a pokémon from a pokéball. A Dugtrio seemed to be my match. a voice came out of nowhere saying "Battle Begin!" The Dugtrio started attacking me as soon as that voice stopped. Magnitude was its first attack. Knowing that it would not effect me if i wasn't touching the ground, I jumped. But then something strange happened. I reached the peak of my jump, and just stayed there. I was flying, somehow. But then I noticed that I was putting out some energy from my body. Magnet rise! knowing that any ground attacks would be nearly useless now, I tried a quick attack. The Dugtrio quickly dodged with a dig, though. Once it came up, I felt some strange power come to me. I tried something that should have been impossible for a Jolteon. I tried a Water Gun. It hit Dugtrio completely by surprise, and not only that, but the attack was a critical hit, too! Dugtrio was completely out, and I was the victor. The scientist that came to get me was the same one who took me there in the first place, but he had a completely different attitude towards me. He was afraid. he handled me like I was a bomb, set to go off any minute. he set me back in my cage, From that day forward I was regularly tested against the odds, but always pulled a ladder out of the knapsack. I also noticed tat one scientist, Brandon as he was called, acted differently. he fit in too well, acted too much like he belonged, there was something odd about him. I formulated a plan. I learned how to lock the doors from inside my cage, without anybody noticing. Almost every day, at nearly the same time of day, the three voices came back. they always seemed just short of getting what they wanted, and seemed to complain about a Pikachu and some "Twerp" trainers regularly. One day, my plan was ready to be put into action.

Part 3: Putting a plan to action  
Eventually, the perfect day came for my plan to commence. Nearly every man was out on a day off or posted in a different sector, leaving only Brandon and a weird tall guy with a purple shirt working in my sector. I dubbed him WL because I didn't know his name, and needed something to call him. Eventually WL went to the break room to get a snack, and only Brandon, and the other eeveelutions, and I were left. I used my practiced powers to lock the door tight, and said to him "You aren't really from Team Rocket, are you?"  
He replied simply, "Nope." Without even the slightest hint of surprise in his voice. "You are more intelligent and powerful than you let on, right?" All I could do was agree and ask why he was here. "Because Team Rocket is an evil organization set on world domination, and I have been posted here to stop them." I knew this fact, and, although I had never seen the world for myself, I also knew that it would be much worse off with Team Rocket running it. "I am a Pokémon Ranger, and my goal here is to stop this operation." He continued.  
"Do you know how to open this cage?" I had to ask.  
"Yup, have a key and everything."  
"Then let's do more than stop them, let's shut them down permanently." His immediate response was to grab a key card from his pocket, swipe through the lock, and throw the cage open.  
"Yeah, let's." We ran down the hall, rushing towards a room that would forever be etched in my memory. The experimentation room. As soon as we got in, I unleashed an instinctual blast of the most powerful thunder I could muster.  
As soon as I did, I heard a clichéd voice saying "Self-Destruct systems activated. Self-destruct in 15 minutes." As soon as it stopped another voice said "Self-destruct deactivation systems deactivated. Explosion imminent."  
Brandon asked "Why is it always Self-Destruct? Why do the villains always put a self-destruct button somewhere?"  
We escaped in the rush of people opening cages and leading the "experiments" out. Along the way, we got stuck in a band of 4 of them. All six of us rushed out, and just kept running. We didn't stop until the smallest of us, a newborn Eevee, was too tired to run.

End of Chapter


	3. Chapter 3

-Chapter 3: The Start of a Journey  
Part 1: A long night  
I watched the others fall asleep one by one, feeling more awake and energetic that I could remember. I had never had a chance to really run before. Never a chance to see how far I could go. I had been trapped without realizing it, and seeing this world open before me gave to me an energy the likes of which I had never felt before. While the others were sleeping soundly, I was unable to sit still, constantly twitching or jogging in place. I needed to run, to jump, to see what I could really do. I had to do something, so I sneaked off without waking anyone and ran until my legs could run no more. I jumped as high as I could, bounding around, trying to burn off some energy. Eventually, I got bored of running and found that I could once again sit still, so I returned to camp. Looking around, I noticed Brandon was up. I said "Couldn't sleep either, huh?"  
He replied with a simple nod, and said "Just thinking about today, and how we managed to escape without anyone even noticing us. It just seemed too easy. Maybe we were just lucky. Anyway, since we will probably be travelling together for a while, you should know that my name isn't really Brandon. My real name is Cheepo."  
Cheepo. The name sounded like I knew it, although I had never heard it before. "In the morning we will need to find out the names of the ones that came with us. But for now you should sleep."  
His reply was simply, "Night, Jolt."

Part 2: Introductions  
Waking from a sleep I did not remember falling into, I found everyone else was stirring and waking up as well. I looked to my side and, just as I thought, Brandon was there, making some food. What am I thinking, calling him Brandon? His name is Cheepo, he told me last night. I decided that now was as good of time as any to get to know who was who. I looked around and saw that our group contained a young Eevee, an normal Umbreon, a small and shiny Umbreon, and an Espeon. The two Umbreons must have had the same thoughts as me because right then they came up to me and both tried to introduce themselves at once, creating such a jumble of words that a jumbled 5000 piece puzzle would have had more sense to it. "Stop! Speak one at a time!" I yelled, not realizing that I was talking human.  
They both immediately shut up and stared at me. "H-how did you learn to speak human?" The shiny one stuttered at me.  
"Practice!" I barked, in Pokémon this time. Cooling down now, I noticed that the smaller one seemed quite jumpy, flinching at the slightest noise. "Sorry. Lost my temper there."  
"It's OK" The normal one said. "My name is Aren and this in Rovesun."  
I looked over to the others and said "Do you know them?"  
Here Rovesun chipped in and said "The Eevee hatched just yesterday and doesn't have a name yet, and the Espeon is from a different sector than us."  
Right then Cheepo yelled "Food's ready!" and set out seven bowls of food.  
I asked the question everybody was thinking "Why seven bowls? There's only six of us here."  
"Oh yeah, I didn't introduce you to my Lucario yet!" He reached for something from his belt, fumbled with same latch for i minute, and pulled out a Pokéball. "Go, Lucario."  
Everybody was surprised at first, but quickly realized that Lucario was just another Pokémon, and nothing to be afraid of. "Hi" it said "Nice to see a few new faces around and to be out of that ball for a while."  
Right then we heard a noise and looked over to our food bowls to see a Pichu wolfing down our food. "Wha- Ack!" It yelled as it looked up and noticed us. "I-I-I just smelled food! I didn't realize there were other Pokémon here!"  
"Good thing I made plenty extra." Cheepo remarked as he dished up another bowl.  
Right then I heard a feminine voice say "Good. Then we won't have to starve." Looking around, I realized that the voice was coming from the Espeon, who until then, I had not realized was a she, and a rather good-looking she at that. Thinking on that fact, I suddenly remembered that I hadn't eaten since the day before yesterday, because I had made my escapade before my daily meal, and suddenly felt very hungry. Everybody else must have had similar thought, because we all rushed to the food and started eating.

Part 3: A new mission  
We were still eating when Cheepo received a call, about him receiving a new mission.

Voice: Cheepo, did you succeed in shutting down Team Rocket's operation?  
Cheepo: Done.  
Voice: then you need a new mission. Where are you?  
Cheepo: I ran in a North-eastern direction from the site, and can see a forest nearby.  
Voice: Then your mission will be to capture a particularly energetic Pichu in that for-  
Cheepo: Already done.  
Voice: How?  
Cheepo: Cooking.  
Voice: Then I will have to consult with my superiors about your next mission.  
Cheepo: Cheepo out.

I knew that I had to say something to the Espeon, but I didn't know what to say. I saw she was talking to the Eevee, who was also a girl. I approached them and said "H-hi."  
The Espeon responded "Hello. I'm Sierra and this is Avie. You don't have a name, right?"  
All I could say was "Ummm... Yeah."  
"How about Jolteon386?"  
I felt like it was the perfect name. "Sound fine to me"  
"Avie, you think you can introduce yourself to the Umbreons over there?"  
Avie said "Yeah" in such a quiet little voice that I could barely hear her, and walked in the direction of the others.  
"She seems like a nice little girl, but get her mad and she can take down a Gyrados."  
"Listen, there's something I want to say-"  
"Please, let me talk first. When I saw you, you seemed so heroic, and being able to speak human so fluently is amazing. You seem like a really nice guy, and I sort of..." She drifted off.  
"...Like me?" I finished.  
"Yeah... But it's probably just a silly idea." She started.  
Before she could continue, I said "Truthfully, the reason I waited to introduce myself was because I like you too and didn't want our introductions to be... awkward."  
There was nothing Sierra could say to this. she just sat down, and thought for a minute. "So you're heroic, smart, powerful, handsome, and you like me. There has to be some sort of catch."  
"Not that I know of. Although I don't know the extent of my powers."  
"Can you do this?" she asked, turning towards a rock and staring at it. After a second the rock started glowing and lifted into the air. After another second it dropped back down and she turned back towards me.  
"I don't know." I turned to a rock, slightly smaller than the one the had lifted, and stared at it, concentrating on lifting it up. after a minute it suddenly shot up, rocketing far past what I could see.  
We were both surprised, and decided to say no more on what I could do.  
Suddenly Cheepo yelled out "Everybody gather! Meeting!"  
We all rushed over, including the Pichu. "Now then, I have a new mission. We need to get this little guy" He motioned to the Pichu. "To the Pika Preserve west of here. Now everybody needs to decide if they are coming with or not."  
Everybody seemed to agree to stay together, except for Aren. "I think here is where we go our seperate ways, at least for now. It was an honor meeting you, and I hope we meet again."  
It was not a sad departure, but it would be the first of many on this journey. As I lokked back on the day, walking with my new friends, I realized that no matter how many friends I left, they would always remain in my heart, together with people like Sierra and Cheepo.

Part 4: A Rocketing Morning  
It had been a few days since Aren had left, and we had continued far west of that spot. Espeon and I had been well-established as a couple, and we were near inseparable.  
I woke up, noticing that the presence that I had grown accustomed to waking up with was gone. Where was Sierra? Then I remembered that we had had our first argument last night. I didn't even remember what it was about, except that it was something silly and I was totally at fault. I looked around, expecting to see her on the other side of the camp, but she wasn't anywhere around. Everyone else was still fast asleep, so I decided to go back to sleep. She would be back by breakfast, I told myself.  
She wasn't. Breakfast had come and gone, and we had no choice but to try to find her. "Why did she even run away?" Lucario asked.  
"We had an argument about something last night, and she got mad at me and ran away."  
"She's been gone way too long for it to be just that."  
"I know, I'm getting worried."  
I looked away, trying not to think about what could have happened to her. I saw a weirdly shaped balloon, with a cage beneath it. Sierra! I ran as I could, jumped up, and flew off towards her. I heard those voices that had slipped through the wall in my old cell coming from the balloon.

?1: James, what is that?  
"James": It looks like a Jolteon, Jessie.  
?3: Flying?  
"Jessie": Toward us!

This "Jessie" and "James" must be with Team Rocket, I thought. I aimed for their balloon, aiming to bring it down.  
Right then the balloon shot up, causing me to cut through two of the strings holding the basket on. I swung back around, aiming for the center of the balloon this time. I went right through, and they fell to the ground. I swung around again, caught Sierra's cage, and landed safely while they landed in a tangled mess. They quickly sprang back up, and started talking.

Jessie: Prepare for trouble!  
James: Make it double!  
Jessie: To protect the world from devastation!  
James: To unite all peoples within our nation!  
Jessie: To denounce the evils of truth and love!  
James: To extend our reach to the stars above!  
Jessie: Jessie!  
James: James!  
Jessie: Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!  
James: Surrender now, or prepare to fight!  
Meowth: Meowth! That's right!

"Are you trying to impress me with that song?" I asked.  
"You can talk?" They all yelled.  
"He must be from the EE Project, too!" The Meowth said  
"Let's see how you match up to this! Go, Vaporeon!"  
The Vaporeon had a look of sadness in it's eyes, pleading me to do something to stop them.  
"Ha! Too surprised to do anything, huh?"  
I knew what to do. I charged up as much power as I could, jumped, and let loose a Hydro Blast over the Vaporeon, and straight to Team Rocket. They went flying, yelling.  
"Team Rocket's blasting off again!"  
The ball that Vaporeon was kept in fell and landed next to me.  
"Ahem, could someone _LET ME OUT OF HERE!_"  
"Oh, sorry, just a sec." I got the cage unlocked and let Sierra out. "There. You OK?"  
"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks. Sorry about getting mad at you."  
"I was the one a fault."  
Here the Vaporeon said "Not to interrupt your little romantic moment, but what just happened?"  
"We can explain it." I said  
"On the way back to our camp." Sierra finished. "I assume that's where the others are?"  
"The others?" I started, realizing that they hadn't noticed that I had left. "Uh... I don't know."  
"Then let's just head back to camp." She said "Come on, you." She motioned for Vaporeon to come with us, and he started to follow us.

Part 4.5: Cheepo's Day  
"Great! We're stuck in a forest, both Jolteon and Sierra are missing, and we're surrounded by ghost Pokémon!" Cheepo yelled.  
"East" I said, knowing that that was the closest edge of the forest. I pointed east so that Cheepo would understand.  
"You think we should go that way? OK, lead the way then."  
I did. We had all reached the forest, and could see the edge. right then a Gastly came down and attacked. Everybody readied attacks, and more ghosts came down. We let loose a barrage of punches, bites, and shadow balls. Clearing out the Gastlys one by one. Finally the way seemed clear, but then came the big one. The head Gengar came down, and my first instinct was to attack, but then I saw that it had a baby Gastly with it. They were just trying to protect their families! I told the Gengar about what had happened, and she understood. She let us go on past, and we headed back towards camp. As soon as we got out of the forest, we heard a faint cry in the distance. Something about "Backing of a game" or something.  
"I'll bet that was Jolt" Avie said.  
"Yeah." Rovesun replied.  
I felt a shock in my back. "Let's just get back to camp already! I'm hungry!" The Pichu cried out.  
We all headed back to camp, hoping that Jolteon386 had found Sierra and gotten back to camp.

Part 5: The End of the Beginning (or Rejoining the Group)

"Sounds like we both had tough days, didn't we Lucario?"  
"We sure did."  
I looked around, and noticed that Cheepo seemed to be deep in thought and the Vaporeon was nowhere to be seen. Everybody else seemed to be just fine, at least for now. "Did you see where that Vaporeon went?"  
Pichu popped in and said "It went back into it's ball." Pulling the said ball out of nowhere.  
"How did you- Never mind, I don't wanna know." "Is it just me or is it getting a bit chilly?"  
Everybody agreed that it was getting cold out. "Maybe we should find shelter, in case it snows." Cheepo vaguely commented.  
"Is something wrong?" I said.  
"No, Just thinking. That Vaporeon seems familiar.  
"Have you seen it before?"  
"Not that I can remember, but I think we should get going, keep a lookout for anything we could use a shelter."  
"Sure. Come on everyone, Let's go!" I yelled.  
As we started packing up, It started to snow lightly. "Well, I guess I was right about the snow."  
"I hope we find a cave or something." I said  
"We can only hope for now." Sierra said  
We trudged through the thickening snow until we saw a cliff hinted at through the white curtain around us. We rushed forward, heading for the shelter of a rock roof above us. Once we were all in, we did a head count. Luckily, everyone made it in, so we started making a fire and readying food. "Good thing we didn't get caught out in that storm, huh?" I said, with a fierce agreement from everyone.  
"Where's that Vaporeon?" Cheepo suddenly said. "I want to ask it something."  
Pichu pulled out his ball and released him. "Wha- Where are we?" he said  
"In a cave. There was a snowstorm. Do you know anything about your parents?" Cheepo said.  
"They were both Vaporeon that worked with some guy, and that I hatched with them while they were on a mission with him." Vaporeon replied.  
"I knew it! Vaporeon, I'm 'that guy'! I knew you looked familiar."  
"Well, I guess this is an interesting reunion." I said.  
"Everybody's looking tired, and I think we should rest for a while." Sierra commented.  
"You're right, let's all get a good night's rest and tomorrow we can dig in and see if we can get to the Pika Preserve."

End of Chapter


	4. Chapter 4

-Chapter 4: Pika Preserve  
Part 1: Snowed in

I awoke to find that the light in the cave we had stopped in was a filtered white blue. Looking around, I realized that this was because snow was completely covering the entrance. at the foot of the snow wall, there was the Vaporeon. I went over to him to make sure he was OK.  
"Uhhh... I tried to make sure... you didn't get buried... Need... Sleep..." he moaned out.  
"You should rest for a while. Ya did good, thanks for that."  
"So... much... Snow..." He mumbled as he fell asleep.  
It was getting cold, so I gathered up the wood we had grabbed last night and lit a fire. I moved everybody around near the fire, and pretty soon people started to stir. One by one, everyone but Vaporeon woke. People quickly noticed that we were snowed in, but I managed to keep panic from breaking out, with some help from Sierra.  
"Everybody calm down! We'll just have to dig our way out, that's all." Sierra yelled, the cave's echo making it a deep roar. "Panicking will do us no good!"  
"Step One" I yelled "Is to calm down, and figure out our course of action."  
"Hey, why is Vaporeon still sleeping through all this?" Cheepo asked.  
"He was up all night trying to make sure the snow didn't fill up the cave and bury us." I said.  
Nobody knew how to respond to this, but everyone calmed down and gathered around the fire, trying to make plans. "We need to find out how deep the snow is." Rovesun said, and everybody agreed, including Cheepo one I relayed it to him.  
"Meaning somebody needs to dig a tunnel to the top of the snow." Lucario said.  
I volunteered for the duty, and jumped up, grabbing the snow about halfway up the entrance. I dug in, trying to dig upwards. It seemed I had barely got started when I broke the top. looking behind me, I noticed that the very top of the entrance was barely above the snow. I dug a bit down, far enough to stick my head in, and said "Hey! The snow is just to the top of the cave!" Hearing people rejoicing, I started to dig down and create a larger passageway out. In about 5 minutes, I had created a hole large enough to get through easily. at this point, Lucario cut in.  
"I'll take over for a little while if you want." He said. I was more than happy to let him work for a while, because I was starting to lose felling in my paws from all the digging in snow. I moved out of his his way, heading back to the fire.  
"Thanks for the help" I said, knowing that he already knew that I was thankful for a break.  
It was later, and everybody had helped with digging at least a little. During this time, Cheepo had managed to find gloves and hats for everyone, even cutting apart and resewing a pair of gloves to make something for Pichu to wear. The tunnel had been widened and cleared, and was now a large ramp of packed down snow that was easy to get up and down on. "We better get going, We lost a few hours of progress in digging ourselves out." Cheepo pulled out pairs of snowshoes from his pack as he said this. "Everybody put these on. Were's lucky I anticipated getting trapped in snow. Now, let's go head out." We all strapped on snowshoes, and started trekking to find the end of the cliff. "By my map" Cheepo said "The Pika Preserve is at the top of this cliff."  
We had been going for most of the day when we saw the point where the cliff met the ground appear from over the horizon. We all looked up, and noticed that the top of the cliff was a lot closer than it had been back at the cave. We all knew that we were going to just get tired out from running, so we just kept our pace going slowly towards the end of the cliff. once we rounded the cliff, we noticed that the Pika Preserve was already within eyesight. When we saw this, we all had a reason to rush, so we rushed forward, trying to get there sooner. I carried Pichu, who was carrying Vaporeon in his ball, and was at the lead of the group. The snow was already dug out around the door, and we all rushed in, tired from our mad dash to get here.

Part 2: Dance

We had all rested for a few days since arriving at the preserve, and had made quite a recovery from nearly getting frozen solid. Pichu was getting acclimated to living in the preserve, and Cheepo's superiors were extremely surprised by how fast he had gotten to the preserve, especially considering the unexpected snowstorm, so he was getting some vacation time while they were figuring things out. I awoke this morning with little on my mind, and noticed that Sierra was already up.  
"Finally up, huh? I was expecting you to be up a lot sooner. It's nearly one, so we better get going if we are going to make it to that thing." Right then I remembered the events of last night.  
"Dance lessons? Maybe you two should go."  
"Sounds fun. What do you think Joltie?"  
"I agree. Let's try to make sure and go."  
It had been Cheepo's idea. We needed to get going, so I grabbed some leftover food from what Cheepo had made last night for dinner and quickly ate it.  
"Sorry for sleeping late." I said through a mouthful of food.  
"Don't talk with your mouth full, and it's fine. There's still about half an hour before it starts, so we can leave in a few minutes and still be a bit early."  
I finished my food, and we left for the presentation hall. When we got there, we saw Cheepo sitting outside.  
"They haven't opened up quite yet. Want a peppermint?"  
We both accepted, trying to savor the minty flavor. "These taste a bit sour." Sierra commented "Did you make these yourself?"  
"Yeah, I accidentally spilled a bit of lemon in them when I was making them."  
"They're good, you should try adding other flavors to them." I said.  
"Maybe some orange, or try mixing in a few oran berries." Sierra said.  
Right then the doors opened and a guy told us that the class would be starting soon.  
"You two go in, It's cold out here." Cheepo said. "I'll go home and try messing with some other flavors."  
"OK, you better have some good ones when we come back." Sierra said.  
We went in, and found that they already had a dance floor set out.  
"Over here, there's somewhere to sit over here." The instructor motioned for us to sit on a carpet set up at one end of the room. "You two have become pretty popular around here, and after all, it's not every day you come across one talking Pokémon, let alone two." He said no more on the subject, just waiting for other people to show up. soon, a lot of people showed up, with plenty of Pokémon, too.  
"OK, let's start. If you are a 4-legged Pokémon, please try to stand on 2 legs. If you do not have any legs or otherwise cannot stand on 2 legs, then try to find a position that will work and is comfortable for you." The instructor said. "Let's start off with a slow dance. Everybody find a partner and follow my lead!" It went on like this for a while, and sometimes I would grasp the technique first and help Sierra, sometimes she would get it first, and sometimes we both just fumbled around until someone helped us. At the end, as the instructor was about to let us out, he said "Remember, there's a Christmas Eve Dance 2 through 5!" I noted to myself to ask Cheepo what Christmas was when I got back, and Sierra and I started back home.  
"That was fun." Sierra said on the way back.  
"Yeah, maybe we should go to that dance thing that was mentioned." I replied.  
"One thing I still don't understand, though."  
"What's that?"  
"What is this holiday, Christmas, all about?"  
"I was planning on asking Cheepo that when we got back." I said, and left it at that.  
When we got back, the first thing we said to Cheepo was:  
"What is Christmas?"  
"Well..." Cheepo said. "Christmas is a day of giving, where you give presents to family and friends. And supposedly at 12:00 midnight the start of Christmas day, a man named Santa Claus in a flying sleigh goes around the world and delivers presents to everybody in the world."  
"He sound like a nice guy, someone who I'd like to meet very much." I said.  
"He's supposed to come down chimneys when he leaves presents." Cheepo continued.  
"How could on man possibly go around the world that fast, and carry enough presents to give to everybody in the world?" Sierra said, a tone of wonder in her voice.  
"Speaking of Santa, we should get a Christmas tree or he'll have nowhere to leave our presents when he comes." Cheepo said.  
"Let's do that first thing tomorrow, then." I said. "Anyway, how did the mints turn out?"  
"Here, try this one. Careful, it's hot."  
"How bad could it be?" I said, popping it into my mouth. It was extremely spicy, and felt like someone had used flamethrower on my tongue. I spat it out, and it stuck to the wall and started to dissolve the plaster. "Jeez, what did you use to flavor that, Essence of Tomato Berry?"  
"Good guess, that is what I used. I guess a whole cup was a bit much. Anyway, on to this. This is the only other on I'm worried about. It's my own special blend, and uses about 15 different fruits and vegetables. Go on, try one."  
Sierra was brave enough to try this one, and she quickly grabbed one, took it out of the wrapping Cheepo had made, and stuck it into her mouth.  
"Hey, this tastes really good! Joltie, you have to try one!"  
I grabbed one, quickly unwrapped it, and popped it in my mouth. "Hmm... good. tastes sort of salty and sour."  
"Really? Mine tastes sweet and a bit spicy."  
"Yeah, I didn't mix the spices evenly or cook them completely uniformly, so each one should taste different." Cheepo said.  
"Nice idea, but I think we should head to bed. It's getting pretty late." I said.  
"Yeah, see you tomorrow." Sierra said.

Part 3: Oh Christmas Tree  
We had gotten a wondrous tree, that fit just perfectly in the living room of the house we were living in. It had been the last on left, and we found it behind a old truck someone had left. we cut it down, carried it back to our house, and decorated it with tinsel and candy canes. "Hmmm. Pretty good, huh?" Cheepo had said when we were all done.  
"Yeah" I agreed. "What do you think Sierra?"  
"I think that it needs a bit more tinsel right..." She grabbed a pawful of tinsel and placed it onto the tree. "Here. Now it looks perfect."  
"Hey! Doesn't that ball start at 2?" It's already 1:50!"  
"Huh? Last I checked it was only 9:00!" I said. "We're gonna be late!"  
"Don't go rushing off just yet! Look outside."  
I looked out the window. the snow was so deep, I couldn't see our door. "Looks like one of those weird storms I heard this area gets at wintertime sometimes." Cheepo commented. "There was a report of strange weather patterns on the news yesterday."  
"Looks like the ball is cancelled" I said. "And I was really hoping to get to go, too. Guess if we want to dance, we'll just have to do it right here."  
"Yeah..." Sierra started to say, but then music started coming out of nowhere, music perfect for dancing to. Before we knew it we were dancing the night away, and pretty soon we were fast asleep on the living room couch together.  
"Awww, how sweet. good thing I grabbed that CD yesterday."

I was waken, still half asleep, by a pitter patter of what sounded like Stantler hooves on the roof, and a loud, joyous laugh echoing down the chimney. I heard the plop of a cloth bag landing, and soon after it came a little old man with bright red cheeks and a nose like a cherry. Smoke encircled his head, emanating from a corncob pipe he gripped in his teeth. For a little old man, he was spry as could be, for he jumped right up right next to the tree and started laying down presents just as fast as could be. As soon as he finished he rushed to the chimney, and I knew he had many more stops, but I couldn't help but say "Wait!" As this cry came from me, he turned round his head.  
"What are you wishing to know from me, Old Saint Nick?" he whispered.  
"I just wanted to know, why do you wander to and fro, handing out presents to people where ever you go?"  
"For peace on earth, and goodwill towards men and Pokemon. But now I must go, for I have many more stops on this trip." and with that, he scampered up the chimney, and to his team gave a whistle. "On Dancer, on Dasher, On Comet and Cupid, On Prancer, on Vixen, on Donner and Blitzen!" And I heard him exclaim, 'ere he drove out of sight, "Happy Christmas to all, And to all a good night!"

Part 4: A Berry Merry Christmas  
I awoke to find that the present were stacked under the tree and all the ones I remembered from last night were just as I remembered them. I looked at them, and found that all there was for me was a card and a small box. I woke Sierra and she was surprised to see all the presents under the tree. I decided to keep my story of St. Nick to myself, and we decided to wait until the others woke to start opening presents. It wan't long before everyone else woke and started to come out for food, and saw the tree and all the presents beneath it. Once everybody was out, Cheepo organised the presents into piles of what each person got, and handed on to each person, opening one himself too. I started with the small box, which turned out to be a pair of glasses. I put them on, and found that I could see details previously unknown to me. Sierra noticed me and commented "Wow! You look so sophisticated with those on!"  
Cheepo's present was a box of rare berries that he immediately took to the kitchen and started a pot of water boiling. "I know what I'm going to do with these." he said, and then returned to check who else had opened theirs. Nobody got anything else special, but then Cheepo passed out the other half of the presents. I opened the card and found it said "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas -Kringle".  
Lucario got an King's rock, Vaporeon a Rare Candy, Rovesun ate her present, a block of cheese, I didn't see what Avie got, and Sierra got a necklace with a heart on it. After everyone opened their presents and cleaned up I noticed that there was still a present under the tree. "Hey! What about that one?" I said pointing to it.  
"Huh. Guess I musta missed it. Hmm, that's strange. It's labeled 'Everyone'".  
"I'll open it!" Both me and Sierra said at the same time. We decided to open it together, and started to open it. I removed the wrapping paper, and Sierra cut the tape. we both opened up the box together and found that the present was an egg. with it there was a note saying simply "Justin". as we picked up the egg it started to glow, and hatched as soon as we set it down. It was a Riolu.  
"Mama! Papa!" it yelled, thinking us its parents.  
"Awww, how cute." Sierra said. I shared those sentiments.  
"I cute!" he said.  
"Clever, too." I said. "And it looks like it falls on us to raise him, at least until he learns to fend for himself."  
"I'll learn! I will!"  
"Let's get something to eat, and find out what this little guy likes."  
"Fooooooooood!"

Part 5: Justin  
As it turned out, he liked everything. Even the Tamato Candies Cheepo made. Nobody saw where he picked it up, but Justin somehow found a Magikarp doll with everstone eyes, which he dragged around and would not let go of. "Magi no go!" he would yell, crying until someone gave him some food.  
"Hey! Check the batteries on the Comm!" Justin yelled, interrupting my thoughts.  
"Huh?" Cheepo said, checking his watch. "Hey! The batteries are dead! How did you know that?"  
"Beep" Justin said.  
"You heard it beep?"  
"Yup. Beep."  
"Well, I guess I should go and get new batteries. Be back in a minute."  
Justin jumped up, yelling "Buh Bye!" as loud as he could.  
It wasn't until then that I realized that Justin had been speaking Human this whole time. I guess I had just become so used to hearing myself and Sierra use it that I forgot most Pokemon can't.  
We continued to teach Justin about things, and pretty soon Cheepo got back.  
The first thing he said was "Sorry about the lack of notice, but we're leaving. I got a call about my next mission on the way back here, and it is quite interesting."

End of Chapter 


End file.
